The Moody Blues' resumed work together after a four-year hiatus and delivered Octave in 1978, which quickly became a hit but has also proved to be a very problematic album…

Jonathan is a Progressive Electronic band from Germany with one self titled album released in 1978 on Heinz Ulm's AAR, and rereleased on Bellaphon Label. The band consisted of Peter Garrattoni who played drums, and was accompanied by Helmut Grab who played keys and electronics. Helmut focussed on Minimoog, Rhodes, Roland, and Solina. Peter Garattoni also was a part of the project playing drums. They were accompanied by Emil Wirth on bass on 'Funky's Visit', and Uli Buehl played a Roland synth on 'Raising Winds', along with Fender Rhodes on 'Waters' and also playing Grand Piano on 'Moved Earth'. The album is very obscure and has become a curiosity over the years with the front-side being colour artwork, and the backside of the cover being black and-white. The band is instrumental with keyboards dominating and a synthesizer sound emanating, with some 70's fusion rhythms…

The Moody Blues' resumed work together after a four-year hiatus and delivered Octave in 1978, which quickly became a hit but has also proved to be a very problematic album…

When Charlie Parker first came to New York in 1942, he was a sideman in Jay McShann's big band. Every jazz fan knows what happened after that - Parker changed the world and McShann became a footnote in Parker's biography. That's too bad, and not just for him; if the 1978 session remastered and reissued on this disc is anything to go by, McShann had much more to offer the world than his role as caregiver to the inventor of bebop. Leading an all-star cast that includes saxophonist Paul Quinichette, the ubiquitous Milt Hinton on bass, and a young, up-and-coming guitarist named John Scofield, McShann teaches an entire course on the history of blues-based jazz, going from his own "Confessin' the Blues" through "Hootie Blues"…

Never Say Die! is the eighth studio album by English rock band Black Sabbath, released in September 1978. It was the last studio album with the band's original lineup and also the last studio album to feature original vocalist Ozzy Osbourne until 2013's 13…

Klaatu gained international attention by remaining hidden for two albums, the first of which was rumoured to be a hidden Beatles reunion album. Their first album 3:47 EST indeed was superb enough to qualify as a Beatles album, with some very skilful songwriting, excellent production and splendid execution. One could fault their inspiration, since they are definitely Beatles-esque, but they manage this better than any other group ever had or has since this album. By the time their stunning follow-up album Hope was released, it was clear they were not the Beatles, but nevertheless the songwriting, execution and inspiration remained flawless…

1979 was a busy year for Irish guitarist Gary Moore, who after years of seemingly aimless wandering across the musical landscape (including a flirtation with jazz-rock fusion while fronting G-Force) simultaneously re-launched his long-dormant solo career and became a full-time member of Thin Lizzy. Moore had originally agreed to help his old partner in crime Phil Lynott only temporarily, while longtime Lizzy guitarist Brian Robertson recovered from a broken hand incurred in a barroom brawl…

"Give and Take" was recorded without Daevid Allen, who had fallen ill after the release of Planet Gong's LP Live Floating Anarchy in 1978. The remaining members released it under their former name, Here & Now. Honestly, it makes no difference. If you don't look at the name on the CD and put it on, you could be tricked to believe it is a genuine early Gong album. Every element that constitutes the seminal space rock outfit's sound is reproduced to perfection: soaring guitar (courtesy of Steffy Sharpstrings, who would be drafted for the 1990s Gong reunion), sweeping synthesizers, psychedelic melodies, accelerating beats, and hypnotic pulses - they're all there…

Kitaro's first several years of solo albums starting with 1978's "Ten Kai" are mostly full-blown space-music discs, very much comparable in parts to Klaus Schulze, Vangelis and even moments of Eloy and Pink Floyd. But it all started with this superb and eclectic instrumental debut, loaded with deep-space electronic soundscapes with light Eastern flavours and drifting ambience, but it's also frequently experimental and maybe even a little trippy!